Attar discusses sustainability activism, student engagement
THE STRAND: Can you state your name, your year, major, and position that you’re running for?
Aminah Attar: My name is Aminah Attar, I’m in second year, I’m currently studying political science and criminology, and I’m running for Sustainability Commissioner.
TS: What qualifications do you have that make you suitable for the position?
AA: I was actually a member of the commission last year, and I had experience helping out with organizing the Save Our Water initiative, which we worked with a smaller community in Ontario to give them more coverage. It’s important to know how to engage Vic students, organizing other events throughout the year, like “Doc and Talk” and also engaging the Vic community in the climate strikes going on is really important and what they can do and how they can contribute to the city or the province as it moves forward in making decisions regarding the environment.
TS: Great. I think you touched on this in your previous answer, but I’m just gonna ask: how do you make these events accessible for a lot of Vic students?
AA: One important thing is making sure they’re free. That’s a big part: as soon as you put a price on it… it’s not accessible at that point, right? Also being aware of the language use when you’re advertising events and things like that, we really don’t want to be focusing down… so there’s accessibility in one sense where you’re accommodating people for their disabilities or their limits, but then it’s also creating a space where they can come in and say something, where students don’t feel uncomfortable, like “I don’t know enough about this” shouldn’t be “therefore I’m not coming.” It should be like “I don’t know enough about this: this is a great opportunity for me to come.” It’s important for me that I’m very approachable. It’s important for me that the commission members as well are very approachable. And it’s about creating that culture as well.
TS: I know the climate strike is today, so, personally I want to ask you: what does sustainability mean to you, and what draws you to climate change activism?
AA: What draws sustainability to me, it’s something very simple. It’s something that has been practiced… and not too long ago, it’s only recently that we’ve kind of been off. It’s something prominent in Indigenous culture. So, sustainability for me is just creating a safe world; it’s guaranteeing our right to a safe life, a right not to be worried about future generations. Something that came out was a birth pledge, and that was about students coming forward and there are students that I’ve talked to who say, “I don’t feel comfortable having children” because of, you know, what’s happening in the environment. So, to me, sustainability and climate activism is something incredibly personal because it’s friends that will be impacted, it’s happening right now—Ontario’s temperatures went up by 1.5 degrees, we’re already seeing an increase in… like, we’re in the midst of a crisis. And you don’t want to see people you care about, you don’t want to see anyone in Vic, you don’t want anyone to have to go through all those changes, be uncertain about their future. It affects people’s mental health, and so it’s so important… this is all of what it means to me, and so it’s so important to be able to engage people by not, you know, harassing them with those facts, but instead trying to, like, you know, that culture, engaging them, you know, that Vic love? That’s what you kind of have to do, so that they can get involved and they can start saying, “this is what I’m concerned about. I didn’t think about this before, but these are things I can do.”
TS: What would you do or say to students who are having trouble deciding whether to opt-in or not, or to encourage people to, like, opt-into their services?
AA: The students I’ve talked to; most students did not opt out. But the students that did, there’s a financial concern present. I haven’t really interacted with anyone who’s like, “I don’t believe in this” or “this doesn’t affect me;” it’s more been like “I can’t afford,” or, it’s like, student loans, or like “this is not something that can go down.” And it’s been students who are just like, it’s fine. But if there’s a minority present or if there are students who are like, “this does not affect me, VUSAC events”, or things like that, “they haven’t helped me in any way”. I think at that point, you have to start seeing, like, okay who shows up at events? They’re usually the regular students who are like super into leadership or like super into community and they want to go a bit beyond academics. And it’s important to start, first off, working on better advertising, working on making sure more people know. A lot of people don’t know about events, a lot of people are like… they don’t know that VUSAC exists, like, I’ve met Vic students that have not been to this building [Goldring Student Centre], right? So, it’s about I guess bringing people more in, and helping them see the value of things. And that means better communication, reaching out to people, and then also accepting them, welcoming them.
TS: Do you have any last words or comments about your platform, yourself, like, pretty much anything?
AA: So, on my platform, what I really want to communicate to Vic is that it’s really about working with an administration and working with Vic students to make as much change as possible. Because there’s the “moving towards carbon zero, moving towards zero waste, diverting our waste from the landfill”… and that will require a lot of talking to students, that will require a lot of work, and that’s something that I’m very excited, but I just want students to know that I’m dedicated to them, I will advocate for them, especially with the strategic planning for the next few years coming up.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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